The federal appeals court based in Denver agreed on Wednesday that a jury should decide whether a Saguache County jail supervisor is liable for failing to prevent the death of a suicidal detainee.

Last year, a trial judge declined to grant immunity to Capt. Kenneth Wilson for the November 2019 suicide of Jackson Maes in his cell. Wilson witnessed Maes harming himself and even believed “something more” should be done for Maes. Instead, jail staff largely left Maes to die by suicide, unnoticed until the following morning.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit concluded a jury could find Wilson violated Maes’ constitutional rights by being deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs — meaning Wilson knew about and disregarded a substantial risk of harm.

“Altogether, our precedent put Captain Wilson on notice that, to the extent he had subjective knowledge of a substantial risk that Mr. Maes would commit suicide, he was obligated to do something to address Mr. Maes’s serious medical needs,” wrote Judge Carolyn B. McHugh in the June 12 order.

According to evidence submitted to the trial court, on Nov. 16, 2019, Deputy Elke Wells arrested Maes for failing to appear for a traffic offense. At the time, Maes was intoxicated and Wells transported him to the jail. Once there, another detainee was occupying the “tank,” where people at risk of suicide are typically held and monitored. Instead, Maes went into a normal cell with a privacy curtain.

He began banging his head into the wall, prompting Wells, Wilson and Deputy Miguel Macias to investigate.

“I’m trying to kill myself right now,” Maes said.

“You’re trying to kill yourself right now?” Wilson repeated.

As Wilson walked out of the cell, he stated “something more” needed to be done for Maes.

In response, Deputy Shelby Shields, who was serving as a dispatcher that evening, called a behavioral health facility to assist Maes. No one answered, however, and she did not leave a message.

Instead, Macias stayed with Maes and talked with him. At 10:08 p.m., after dropping off snacks for Maes, Macias left the cell. Less than 15 minutes later, Maes had hanged himself with the privacy curtain. A deputy did not find him until the following morning, dead. He was 27.

Sarah Lieberenz, Maes’ mother, filed several claims against the sheriff’s employees involved, arguing they violated Maes’ constitutional right to adequate medical care. Against the sheriff specifically, she alleged his policies or practices were also responsible for Maes’ death, as was the county board’s underfunding of the jail.

The sheriff’s employees argued they were entitled to qualified immunity, which is a judicial doctrine that shields government officials from civil liability unless they violate a person’s clearly established rights. In a February 2023 order, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang largely agreed the jail deputies’ conduct did not rise to a clear constitutional violation.

She reached a different conclusion for Wilson. There was conflicting testimony about what Wilson knew, but he ultimately heard Maes express his suicidality, watched him bang his head, acknowledged “something more” needed to be done, and allegedly was involved in discussions about putting Maes on suicide watch.

The “aggregation of these risk factors,” Wang concluded, could lead a jury to find Wilson liable for a constitutional violation. She also permitted Lieberenz’s claims against the elected sheriff and the county to proceed to trial.

Wilson appealed Wang’s decision to the 10th Circuit, where multiple outside parties filed briefs in support of Lieberenz. 

Three former heads of the Washington State Department of Corrections urged the court to recognize the pervasive problem of detainee deaths and to allow jailers to be held liable when they fail to take required precautions. The Cato Institute, a free market think tank in Washington, D.C., also slammed the concept of qualified immunity as being unauthorized by legislation and lethal to government accountability.

“Qualified immunity thus enables public officials who violate federal law to sidestep their legal obligations to the victims of their misconduct,” wrote the group’s attorneys. “In so doing, the doctrine corrodes the public’s trust in government officials — and members of law enforcement in particular — making on-the-ground policing more difficult and dangerous for all officers, including those who consistently respect their constitutional obligations.”

During oral arguments before the appellate panel, Wilson’s attorney focused on whether his client, in fact, reasonably responded to Maes’ red flags.

“What about to take reasonable steps to protect a person’s safety and bodily integrity?” asked Judge Richard E.N. Federico. “You kind of glossed over what may be the most significant thing that he observed, which was that an individual was actually engaging in self-harm.”

“He was banging his head against a metal divider. It was not a suicidal attempt,” responded attorney John T. Osgood.

“He said, ‘I’m trying to kill myself right now,'” interjected McHugh.

Ultimately, the panel agreed with Wang that a jury could find Wilson liable for his awareness of Maes’ suicide risk and subsequent failure to respond reasonably to prevent Maes’ death.

Although Lieberenz appealed Wang’s grant of qualified immunity to the other sheriff’s employees, the 10th Circuit found it did not have the ability to immediately review that portion of her ruling.

The case is Lieberenz v. Wilson et al.